“Blagden and Sons. You know that.”

“Yeah, I know the name, but that’s all it is: a name. Who are they? Where do they come from?”

“Don’t know, Luke, but their money’s good. Cash up front. That’s bout as good as it gets.”

“Do they know about the lights?”

“That one I can answer: Yeah, they know about the lights.”

Some guy named William somethin’ from this company called Blagden and Sons come around in a canoe a few weeks ago askin’ if anyone’d been seein’ funny lights about this time of the year. The clan folk he talked to sent him to Semelee since she was sorta the leader round here. Not that she’d ever looked to be the leader, but it seemed whenever somethin’ needed decidin’, she wound up the one who did it.

Semelee played it cagey with this William fellow until she was pretty sure he wasn’t no tour-guide type or scientist or anything like that, and wouldn’t be bringing boatloads of strangers or teams of pointy heads to peek or poke at the clan and the sinkhole. Nope, all William wanted was to haul off the dirt and sand from around where they’d seen the lights.

When Semelee had told him they’d been comin’ up through this sinkhole that used to be underwater but was now gettin’ dry, he got all excited and wanted to know where it was. Semelee pretended she wasn’t gonna tell him, and held off even when he offered money. So he offered more money and more money until Semelee had to say yes. Maybe she could’ve held out for even more, but there weren’t no sense in gettin’ all greedy about it.

When she’d took him to the sinkhole she thought he was gonna pee his pants. He danced around it, callin’ it a senn-oaty or somethin’ like that. When she asked him what he was talkin’ about he spelled it for her: C-E-N-O-T-E. Told her it was a Mex word and you said it like coyote. Semelee liked sinkhole better.

The dredgin’ was all hush-hush, of course. The clan wasn’t upposed to be livin’ here on the lagoon, this bein’ a National Park and all, and Blagden and Sons wasn’t upposed to be takin’ the sand.

“Matter off act,” she told Luke, “I’m pretty sure they want the sand because of the lights.”

“That’s kinda scary, dontcha think? Them lights ain’t natural. They changed us and everythin’ around them. Probably even changed the sand in that hole.”

“Probably did.”

Luke looked uneasy. “What on earth could they want it for? I mean, what’re they gonna do with it?”